@joshix @paulisci This guy is incredible:

> _ In 2015, despite not speaking French,[2] Richards won the French World Scrabble Championships, after reportedly spending nine weeks studying the French dictionary.[3] He won it again in 2018, and multiple duplicate titles from 2016.[4]_

Headline of the year nominee: “Man who doesn’t speak Spanish won Spanish Scrabble championships.”

Nigel Richards also won the French-language title in 2015 (without speaking french)

@paulisci that’s right, and I heard this is fairly common. There are non-English speakers who do very well in the English Scrabble championships as well. It seems obvious when you think about it: the skills necessary to memorize word spellings and place them on a grid are completely different from the skills necessary to speak a language. I have heard that people who have a good understanding of computer programming languages and linguistics do better at scrabble regardless of their native language.

@joshix